What do you do with six weeks, good company, and a desire to explore marvellous places? For me and my dad, Dave, in 2014, it was to visit seven European countries.
Departing from the Tyneside ferry, we soon arrived at Amsterdam, home of the bike, before heading south on enviable cycle infrastructure to Belgium and pretty Luxembourg. We followed autumnal leafy roads through the Ardennes.
Next it was ‘big river’ country as we arrived at the Moselle. Large barges travelled Le Pays des Trois Frontières of Luxembourg, Germany and France next to banks of ripening grapes. We continued through Alsace and Lorraine with no fixed route.
Strasbourg was one of many historic cities we enjoyed. Then we rode through the Black Forest in Germany – a wooded countryside of lynx, cuckoo clocks, and gateau. In the sunny Germany town of Freiburg we ate Italian ice cream with a German man who put us up for a couple of nights.
Switzerland soon called. First it was Lucerne, with its Chapel Bridge (Kappellbrücke) and boat-dotted lake. Then we travelled into the Alps proper via the Brünig Pass to Interlaken. This landscape of waterfalls, beneath the mountains of the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau, must be one of the most beautiful in the world.
Continuing west, we parted at Geneva. My dad returned home and I cycled on to see my girlfriend’s family. It was a wonderful trip.
